Protective athletic garment

ABSTRACT

A protective athletic garment provides segmented padding is patterned to conform to the size, shape and motion of the muscles it is protecting. Segmented padding is supplemented in joint areas by tangentially-stepped articulated shielding, each comprising a hingeably interconnected series of rigid shells. The structure and orientation of the shells deflects impact forces tangentially, while the rotational mobility of the shielding has a force-damping effect.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of protective garments, andmore particularly to garments to protect athletes competing in contactsports, such as lacrosse, football, hockey and motocross. While thepresent invention is primarily directed to protective athletic garments,however, it is also applicable to garments used in any activityinvolving potential high-impact bodily contact where there is a needprovide protection without unduly restricting mobility.

Protective garments and equipment designed for use in contact sportstypically rely on two modes of dissipating impact forces: padding andshielding. Padding dissipates the force through elastic deformation ofthe padding material, while shielding deflects a portion of the forceaway from the body. Optimally, padding and shielding are used incombination, with padding underlying shielding, so that undeflectedforces transmitted through the shield can be absorbed by the paddingbeneath.

The major problem in designing effective athletic gear is the need tobalance protection versus mobility. Even within the same sport,different degrees and types of protection and mobility are oftendemanded for different position players. Shoulder protectors suitablefor a football lineman, for example, would be much too confining for aquarterback or wide receiver, while a quarterback's lighter paddingwould be ineffective for blocking on the line.

One way to provide both mobility and protection is to segment orarticulate the padding and/or shielding, leaving interstices and/orjoints within which flexing and bending can take place. Segmentationand/or articulation of both padding and shielding is needed to providemobility where both modes of protection are being deployed inconjunction with one another. But, since segmentation and articulationintroduce additional degrees of freedom of movement to padding andshielding beyond that associated with their protective functions, it'simportant that the mobility dynamics of the padding and shielding notwork at cross purposes to their protective dynamics.

For example, a simplistic approach to segmenting an elbow protectorwould be to split it above and below the joint. But, while facilitatingelbow movement, such segmentation would also leave the most sensitiveouter part of the elbow exposed every time the elbow was bent.

Another important consideration in designing articulated body protectionis the interaction between the padding and the shielding. For example,foam padding underlying a one-piece shield panel will compress downwardto dissipate a downward force applied to the panel. But the same paddingbeneath a two-piece panel may be subject to sideward pressure whichlimits its downward compression and reduces force dissipation.

The prior art in this field includes garments in which segmented paddingis inserted into pockets or openings in the garment. Examples of thesegarments are disclosed by Mattila, U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,407, Ketcham etal., U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,706, Valtakari, U.S. Pat. No. 5,105,473, andDavis, U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2007/0199129. While pocket-type padding hasthe advantage of versatility, the padding adds to the bulk of thegarment and impedes mobility.

Several prior art patents/applications teach the use of segmentedprotective pads which are integrated within the fabric of the garment.Examples of such integrated segmented padding designs appear in Fortieret al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,810,559, Stewart et al., U.S. Pat. No.5,551,082, and Lamson et al., U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2009/0044319. A jointprotector with articulated padding is disclosed by Williams, U.S. Pat.No. 6,058,503, in which the resilient members conform to the contours ofthe protected joint.

The combination of segmented padding with overlying non-articulatedpanels is taught by Donzis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,271, wherein the panelsconform to body contours, as do the pocket-insert panels disclosed byValtakari and Davis. An upper body protector comprising inflatable aircells in combination with rigid non-articulated plastic epaulets istaught by Maynard, U.S. Pat. No. 5,235,703.

The present invention improves upon the prior art by providing aprotective garment with a combination of segmented resilient paddingcovering vulnerable body areas, such as chest, arms and back, plusarticulated rigid shield panels over joints areas, such as shoulders andelbows. Synergistic dynamic interaction of padding and shielding isachieved by converting impact forces to torques within a series ofarticulated shield panels and spreading out the forces transmitted tothe underlying padding both over area and time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention can be practiced in a number of embodiments, whichshould be understood before one specific embodiment is described indetail. For illustrative purposes, some of these embodiments will now bediscussed for the purpose of conveying a better understanding of thegeneral intent of the present invention. It should be understood,however, that neither the following illustrative embodiments, nor thedetailed embodiment described in the next section of this application,are intended to limit the scope of the present invention.

The present invention uses segmented resilient padding in conjunctionwith articulated shielding comprising a series of interconnectedlight-weight rigid panels. The garment has an outer layer and a linerlayer, with some padding material distributed over various areas betweenthe two layers, and other padding material attached to the outer layerand projecting above it. The former will be referred to as “interiorpadding” and the latter as “exterior padding”. The padding material canconsist of a gel, such as semi-solid silicone, a foam, such as open-cellpolyurethane, or a polymer composite. Cells filled with compressed airor gas, as well as inflatable air bladders, can also be used as paddingmaterial.

Segmentation of the padding is patterned to conform to the size, shapeand motion of the muscles it is protecting. Using the front of an upperbody garment as an example, interior padding over the chest couldcomprise two large triangular foam segments over the right and leftpectorals separated by an exterior vertical oblong strip of raisedsquare or rectangular gel segments over the sternum. The outer sides ofthe upper arms and forearms could be covered with exterior paddingcomprising clusters of cubical or hemispherical cells containingcompressed air, for greater mobility. Over the clavicle, exteriorpadding might consists of narrow raised polymer strips running acrossthe shoulder, so as not to impede the upward movement of the arm.

The articulated shielding is designed to direct impact forces in adirection tangential to the contours of the protected body area. Overthe shoulder, for example, the shielding might comprise a series ofhingeably interconnected shells arranged in a stepped configuration.Each of the shells would have multiple flat or slightly convex outersurfaces tangentially aligned with respect to the underlying shouldercontours. The shells would be fabricated from a light-weightimpact-resistant plastic, fracture-resistant long glass fiber nylon, orceramic material. The interconnection between the shells would permiteach of the shells to rotate upward, sliding partially under theadjacent shell as the arm is raised.

The tangentially-stepped articulated shielding of the present inventionwill dissipate impact forces in two ways. First, an oblique impact toone of the shells will tend to move it in the direction of leastresistance, which is at a tangent to the underlying body contour, sothat the orthogonal component of the force is re-directed and deflected.Second, an orthogonal or oblique impact to one of the shells willgenerate a torque causing the shell to rotate about the hinge connectingit to the adjacent shell. This rotational motion will be transmitteddown the series of interconnected shells, thereby generating anundulating movement which tends to dampen the force. Since thisundulating motion of the shielding has both horizontal and verticalcomponents, the orthogonal force component is again reduced. Moreover,the undulating transmission extends the force over a larger body areaand protracts the time interval during which the force is applied to thebody, thereby reducing the resulting pressure on the body.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C are front, back and left side views, respectively,of an exemplary upper torso protective garment, without the shieldingcomponents, according to the preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C are front, back and left side views, respectively,of an exemplary upper torso protective garment, with the shieldingcomponents, according to the preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3E are detail front views of the shoulder shieldingcomponent of an exemplary upper torso protective garment, according tothe preferred embodiment of the present invention; and

FIGS. 3C and 3D are detail front views, and FIG. 3E is a detail sideview of the elbow shielding component of an exemplary upper torsoprotective garment, according to the preferred embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1C, the front and sides of the exemplary uppertorso protective garment 10 include both interior padding 11 andexterior padding 12. The interior chest padding 13 over the pectoralscomprises two triangular pads of open cell polyurethane foam,approximately two to three inches thick. The interior rib-cage padding14 comprises four semi-trapezoidal pads, likewise consisting of opencell polyurethane foam, approximately two to three inches thick. Theexterior arm padding 15 comprises three clusters of raised cubical gelcells, approximately one-quarter to one-half inch in height, positionedover the outer surfaces of the upper arm, elbow and forearm. Theexterior shoulder padding 16 comprises multiple narrow raised gelstrips, approximately one-quarter to one-half inch in height, runningfront to back across the clavicle area. The outer garment layer aboveeach of the pectorals is optionally provided with a pocket 17 into whicha rigid breast plate 18 (see FIG. 2A) can be inserted.

Referring to FIG. 1B, the back of the exemplary upper torso garment 10includes the exterior arm 15 and shoulder 16 padding described above. Inaddition, there is interior upper back padding 19 over the scapula areascomprising two triangular pads and interior lower back padding 20 overthe latissimus dorsi areas comprising four semi-trapezoidal pads, withthe pads in both cases consisting of open cell polyurethane foam,approximately two to three inches thick. Exterior spinal padding 21 overthe backbone area comprises an oblong strip of raised cubical gel cells,approximately one-quarter to one-half inch in height.

Referring to FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C, tangentially-stepped articulatedshielding 22 is attached over the padding and consists of two shouldershields 23 and two elbow shields 24. Optionally, as mentioned above, twotriangular breast plates 18 can also be inserted into the pockets 17 foradded protection of the pectoral areas. Preferably, the shielding 22 andbreast plates 18, are fabricated from a light-weight, rigidimpact-resistant plastic or ceramic. Each of the shoulder shields 23comprises three interconnected shoulder shells 25, each having anopen-rectangular or convex shape. Each shoulder shell 25 is hingeablyconnected at its base to the next adjacent shell 25, such that each ofthe shells 25 can rotate upward and slide partially under the nextadjacent shell when the garment wearer raises his/her arm. Each of theelbow shields 24 comprises five interconnected elbow shells 26, eachhaving an open-rectangular or convex shape.

Each elbow shell 26 is hingeably connected at its base to the nextadjacent shell 26, such that each of the shells 26 can rotate upward andslide partially under the next adjacent shell when the garment wearerbends his/her arm.

FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3E illustrate in detail the tangentially-steppedarticulated structure of one of the shoulder shields 23. The rotationalmovement of the shoulder shells 25 when the arm is raised can be seen bycomparing FIG. 3A with FIG. 3C. FIGS. 3C and 3D illustrate in detail thetangentially-stepped articulated structure of one of the elbow shields24. The rotational movement of the elbow shells 26 when the elbow isbent can be seen by comparing FIG. 3D with FIG. 3C.

Although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has beendisclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art willappreciate that many additions, modifications and substitutions arepossible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the presentinvention as defined by the accompanying claims.

1. A protective athletic garment conforming to a wearer's body contours,comprising: an outer layer and an inner layer; resilient paddingdistributed in multiple primary protective areas of the garment, whereinthe resilient padding comprises both interior padding and exteriorpadding, and wherein the interior padding is distributed between theouter layer and the inner layer, and wherein the exterior padding isattached to the outer layer and projects above it, and wherein theresilient padding comprises multiple segments separated by multipleinterstices, which facilitate flexing and bending of the garment; andarticulated shielding attached to the outer layer of the garment andcovering multiple secondary protective areas of the garment, wherein thearticulated shielding comprises multiple hingeably-interconnected shellsarranged in a stepped configuration, and wherein each of the shells hasmultiple flat and/or convex outer surfaces, and wherein the outersurfaces of the shells are tangentially aligned with respect to theunderlying body contours of the wearer, and wherein the shells are madeof a light-weight, rigid, impact-resistant material, and wherein theshells of the articulated shielding undulate when impacted by anexternal force, thereby damping the force and dissipating the impact ofthe force on the underlying body contours.
 2. The protective athleticgarment according to claim 1, wherein the articulated shielding in thesecondary protective areas of the garment overlay portions of theresilient padding in the primary protective areas of the garment.
 3. Theprotective athletic garment according to claim 2, wherein the secondaryprotective areas are located above the body contours that containexposed joints and/or bone structures.